Delve

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the business manager and creative director of Reality Testing, a small production company that primarily focuses on comedy shows and performances.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with altr?

We were hosting a charitable event and needed to design a website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

altr provided helped us design and relaunch a charity website. They also provided back-end integration services. Their team helped us present data and information in a really appealing and functional way. Our team collaborated with them on the design, they really helped us realize our vision.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with Geordie (Founder, altr) and their tech lead.

How did you come to work with altr?

A member of our company went to high school with one of the founders of altr and they volunteered to help us out with the site.

How much have you invested with them?

They provided pro bono work for a charitable cause.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with altr ran from April–May 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The website is beautifully designed. We plan on launching a podcast in June, which should yield greater returns as we send more people to the site.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

altr is great at managing projects, they hit all their deadlines. Our teams had really productive meetings and they brought really creative ideas to the table. I’d wholeheartedly recommend working with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have excellent execution. They successfully worked with a compact timeline and produced quality results really quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything was great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of user experience at a healthcare organization that focuses on driving better health outcomes for the senior population.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with altr?

We needed a team to come in and design a social experience on a digital platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team at altr met with our stakeholders and prospective users to understand the goals, gather requirements through discovery meetings with business owners, and brought back their plans for the project.

Their team built the platform from scratch, creating an environment that allows call center workers, representatives, and other associates to manage members’ healthcare needs. Using Sketch and InVision, they took a set of brand guidelines into a digital space.

Some of the functions and features included a dashboard design and member profiles. The tool also has a feature that uses predictive analytics to help associates knows what they should talk to members about based on their history. It also enables associates to share educational content with members.

What is the team composition?

Three of their team members collaborated with my internal team of designers as well as about 15 stakeholders across the business.

How did you come to work with altr?

I knew the owner from college. While we did consider three vendors in total, their portfolio had clients from the health industry, showcased their expertise, and displayed clean design work.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with altr started in September 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The work they delivered meets the needs of both business owners and customers. Their ability to engage with the business and design teams was one of the success metrics. The team at altr embedded themselves, building relationships across the board. We featured their work to our board of directors, and the feedback from there was excited and positive.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team was better at organizing and structuring than our team. Each week during development, they sent out comprehensive status reports. The owner, who wasn’t working directly on the project, was available if needed and checked in frequently. Their entire team is responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team at altr invested in the project. Their people can do the work and provide strategic direction. They’re small enough that each person provides value; the client doesn’t get lost.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re looking for a partner that wants to collaborate. Their value is that they come in and can understand the challenges from both business and cultural standpoints, and then work through them with the client.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Homethrive is a tech-enabled company that provides benefits through employers and insurance companies to families that are caring for aging loved ones. We match each family with a dedicated care guide—a social worker who is able to provide advice and coaching services to assist with the challenges of taking care of elderly family members.

I wear a lot of hats here, but, among other things, my work focuses on marketing and expanding our web presence. I also work on our digital product development, operations, and partnerships.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with altr?

We wanted to be able to more effectively communicate what we do. We operate in a relatively unique industry, so we wanted to find the right language and visual approach to clearly articulate who we are and what we do.

We wanted to do a total overhaul of our website, which we had built ourselves and needed an upgrade. We also wanted to streamline the UI/UX of our member-facing portal.

That resulted in us taking on a large-scale brand refresh, where we updated our overall look and feel.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

altr interviewed us and prospective members about their perceptions of our company. They conducted qualitative as well as quantitative research on brand perceptions—inquiring over 500 people—to make informed decisions about how we’d construct our new messaging.

They then launched into creating a brand manifesto, along with headlines and taglines for specific audiences. They delivered a broader brand guideline which comprised a refreshed logo, new colors and fonts, and a revamped aesthetic.

They applied that brand guideline onto the new website and progressive web app, which they designed from scratch. They constructed a platform architecture that made sense for our product offerings and services. They also created the copy and layout of each page. They then gave the web designs to our development team, who coded and brought the designs to life.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 5­–6 people, total. Geordie (Founder & Chief of Strategy, altr) was our primary point of contact.

How did you come to work with altr?

We found them through LinkedIn networks. We talked to 5­–6 companies, and ultimately found altr’s proposal to be most well-rounded. We were also impressed by their portfolio.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement began in September of 2019 and the partnership is ongoing. We have ad-hoc hourly arrangements for ongoing support for both the website and web app they provided.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Thanks to their work, we’ve enjoyed a significant increase in web traffic as well as conversions. They’ve empowered us with functionalities that were previously impossible—like marketing automation and an online signup process.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

It was great. We had them join our Slack, so we communicated pretty seamlessly. I could call Geordie, and if he wasn’t available, he’d call me back within a couple of hours. We never once had to follow up or request a status update. They were very proactive and clearly committed to our project. They accommodated a very tight timeline for us and delivered in a graceful manner, so we had no issues at all with scheduling.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We often disagreed on a design perspective, but their ability to help us evolve our thinking and push us forward was fantastic. They never just bowed down to our conflicting feedback. They not only delivered a website that people love but propelled us towards success.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. We really enjoyed working with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would encourage people to think of them as partners. Share your strategy with them; take advantage of the fact that they have deep industry expertise beyond the delivery of appealing digital products.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at a global consumer goods company. Our team oversees the frontend user experience for consumers who shop for our product on our global digital properties. We design features and functionalities which enable our consumers to easily learn about and purchase our products. My current role requires me to combine consumer insights, UX best practices, and analytics information to build out a series of enhancements to our platforms in support of business needs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with altr?

We leveraged altr to modify existing and create net-new components of our website in support of business needs and based on observed site performance.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked with altr on three different engagements, all different in nature. After creating and sharing a brief with the altr team, where we outlined the assignment & our business needs, they got to work.

After project kickoff, they took us through an initial project discovery, where we aligned on strategy, KPIs and a competitive analysis to better understand other experiences in market. At times, altr needed to roll up their sleeves and dive into key site analytics to ensure they had a handle on current site performance and the problems that they were solving.

From there, altr oversaw creative development, working with our internal team as we shared solutions with key team members. After a design direction was solidified, they handed approved comps over to our development team.

What is the team composition?

We had 3-4 people working on this project in total.

How did you come to work with altr?

Parts of our team had previously worked with various members of altr previously in previous roles. We wanted to bring them in to get a fresh perspective.

How much have you invested with them?  

We've invested approximately $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together on these projects from May 2019, and wrapped up in August 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Overall, the work that they did was well-received. We work with a number of stakeholders who have a say into the digital experience of our customers, so it's not a small feat to get work aligned across the various teams. altr did a very good job there.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed well. They worked with us to come up with a solution based on the amount of money that we had allocated for the engagement. They set expectations with us based on the scope of work and the time frame to get the work completed in. They were clear when things would have an impact on the scope or schedule.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're a small team that did a lot of work that was very detail-oriented. They were always eager and excited jump right in. They brought a lot of thought into how to best complete the project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, none that I can think of.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to involve their team as much as possible in its earlier stages.  They work best when they're allowed to roll at their speed and ask questions. As in any project with an agency, getting as much information as possible early on is going to lead to their success. They're very smart people; embrace them as members of your team to be completely successful.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of clinical product development for Cota. We’re a healthcare company that strives to reduce the cost of care in fields like oncology while improving outcomes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with altr?

We wanted to improve the user experience for one of our platforms. It uses some intricate concepts that were confusing to interact with; we wanted to find a way to streamline those from a visual perspective.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we started working with altr, we set up a timeline to begin information gathering. That involved various calls with people in different departments to collect their opinions on the platform. altr also watched demos of how users used the platform to see where they click and navigate. 

After that, they gave us an initial proposal. We then had key stakeholders meet with altr to get their feedback. From there, we iteratively made tweaks and changes on drafts, which led to another round of stakeholder feedback. At the end of the process, altr met with everyone who was involved throughout the project and walked them through the final product: a conceptual layout.

What is the team composition?

We worked with primarily two people. Geordie (Founder, Chief of Strategy, altr) led the initiative from start to finish. He was involved in every conversation, including engagement meetings with stakeholders. Christine (Founder, Chief of Design, altr) was involved in design meetings where we made tweaks and helped out behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with altr?

Our CTO had worked with altr in a previous role and had a lot of confidence in them. We decided to go with their team based on that experience.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September until November 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’re implementing the layout that altr created into our system now. The concepts they proposed are things that we as a company have always wanted to do but couldn’t get right. While the process is ongoing and we don’t have any hard metrics yet, our users are giving positive feedback already. There’s also a lot of promise and excitement for what we haven’t implemented yet.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

The timeline they proposed upfront was exactly the timeline we hit. They made it very clear in the beginning what we would get, and that was what we received at the end. Having one point person was really effective as well. We communicated through Zoom calls every week; once we got to engagement interviews and making iterative changes, we stayed in touch daily.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their response time stood out the most to us. Any time we had any concerns, questions, or feedback for Geordie, he would always reply really quickly and make the changes we asked for.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One particular area proved challenging for us; it required the user to make a lot of clicks and work through many different steps. It took a while for altr to grasp what we were trying to achieve, given the complexity. In the future, they should check in a little more often to make sure that they’re on track and understand our requests.

Any advice for potential customers?

Engage with altr—they are so responsive and willing to make changes. Don’t be afraid to ask them any and all questions you might have. That was really valuable to us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing and business development for Howland Capital.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with altr?

We identified that we needed to overhaul our website, which had been developed a number of years ago. We were concerned with its functionality, the look and feel of it, and wanted to ensure that the end product was consistent with how we served our current clients. Moving forward, we wanted prospective clients to use it to determine if they felt as if they, too, would benefit from a similar relationship.

We also felt the functionality needed improving, as well as the representation of our services and how to deliver them to existing clients. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We began with identifying the scope of the assignment and developing a work plan, focusing on understanding who the website would speak to. The first step was getting as much info as possible to help create the direction for altr.

They then developed initial rough designs and functionalities for the site—headlines, subheads, and so on. They came back with a killer design and appropriate functionality. They intuitively knew how we should be presenting our services on the website. We also focused on the real-life interactions between clients and managers and tried to replicate that on the site.

We approved their approach with very few changes and they helped me identify a group to work with from a CMS perspective. They helped to communicate the site’s design and functionalities to them so that they could put the backbone together.

They also got involved with some logo development as we wanted to modify our logo and make it more mobile-friendly. The site hasn’t launched yet; it’s in the final stages and should be launching fairly soon. altr has been available and involved in assuring that the site is being built out in the way it was originally designed.

What is the team composition?

Initially, I worked with Geordie (Founder, Chief of Strategy, altr) and Christine (Founder, Chief of Design, altr), to identify and finalize the work plan. Christine and an external copywriter were involved in the design. After that, Geordie worked during the development, refining the designs, headlines, copy, and so on.

How did you come to work with altr?

I interviewed several design firms but ended up finding altr from a recommendation. We’re a pretty small firm and didn’t have an unlimited budget design and build, so we found altr to be the perfect solution rather than a large agency.

How much have you invested with them?

It was in the $10,000–$50,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them between October–December 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I can speak to successes in terms of the functionality of the site, and the look and feel of the client­-manager relationships that are represented—it’s appropriate and truly replicates the real-life experience. That was the main intent and what we wanted the site to do.

The look and feel of the new site is fun, current, and user-friendly. It’s easy to navigate. It’s a lot less wordy than in the past and how we represent ourselves isn’t as conservative and conventional as before.  However, we don’t have any results, in the sense of how many people have actually gone to the site and then get in touch, because it’s not live yet.

I can speak to successes in terms of the functionality of the site, and the look and feel of the client­-manager relationships—it’s appropriate and truly replicates the real-life experience. That was the main intent and what we wanted the site to do. 

The look and feel of the new site are fun, current, and user-friendly. It’s easy to navigate. It’s a lot less wordy than in the past, and we’re not taking ourselves as seriously anymore. However, we don’t have any results, in the sense of how many people have actually gone to the site and then get in touch, because it’s not live yet.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

They were there for any need I had; at any juncture, aiding me with the positioning and messaging. They also made referrals to people with expertise when I needed it. Overall, they were outstanding. They got us right away, which was great and made it a lot easier to work with them.

I communicated with Geordie quite a bit, whether in the office or via phone, email, and conference calls. Initially, it was almost daily and then it became weekly. When we were handing the design over to the CMS group to be built out, I touched base with Geordie every two months or so. He was always available to me, at any point in time, whether the job was still going or not.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They listened well, and they understood us—in terms of what the challenge was and what it was going to be. Right out of the box they came up with the design that we now have. They understood who we are, what we do well, and what was important to communicate and reinforce. They didn’t misrepresent or overpromise anything within our messaging. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. altr is intentionally structured to give us access to the skill sets we needed, without hiring or bringing on full-time people. Their structure is a little different, but it makes them nimble.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

An initial face-to-face with Geordie or Christine is the best way to go. Have an open conversation about what your challenges and goals. They will be able to guide you in almost any area. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the digital diabetes product leader for Becton Dickinson, one of the largest medical device manufacturers in the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with altr?

We needed outside design help as we built a mobile application for healthcare consumers that have diabetes.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

After interviewing our key stakeholders to understand the strategic perspective of our business, altr conducted extensive user research to identify unmet market needs. With those findings, they translated the needs into a digital experience—specifically regarding our curriculum-based content and how we present diabetes data to the user.

They’ve been instrumental in developing the visual design language and the consumer experience for the mobile application. When we first launched, we had a true MVP in that we thought more of the technology than the design. But, now, the design is much more refined.

What is the team composition?

Although I’m sure they have a large team, we communicate primarily with the co-founders and a UI/UX designer.

How did you come to work with altr?

I searched through many lists of top firms before coming across altr’s LinkedIn profile. They had a demonstrated experience with healthcare projects, so I connected with one of their co-founders. We had a great conversation, and the engagement followed from there. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in January 2018 and is ongoing. We’re currently wrapping up the current statement of work and have to discuss what our next needs are. We will likely address the functionality to connect with third-party tracking devices, as well as the process for getting data we collect back to physicians.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

By working with our UX lead, altr’s design team came up with a wonderful visual interface with intuitive designs for certain features. This has helped triple engagement in the platform. We’ve seen our funnel completion rate increase 10%–15% since we've redesigned the onboarding experience with altr’s help.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

They tend to work as an extension of our team, which was important in the vendor selection process. This involves regularly coming into our office and working almost hand-in-hand with our UX lead. They also hold product reviews with our technology team to ensure that the design direction they’re recommending is feasible from an execution standpoint. altr utilizes Sketch InVision to present their updates to us, and they are ardent to stick with their timelines. Their team always aims to exceed expectations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They take the time to understand the strategies and priorities we have as a business. They adapt what we’re trying to accomplish with the consumer into the end design they create. altr has not shown to be an agency that wants to do something cool just because it’s cool; at the end of the day, they want to do what works for the consumer.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. In terms of the technical scope and the depth of partnership we were looking for, altr has hit a home run.

Any advice for potential customers?

We found that the interviews with stakeholders were a valuable exercise to ensure alignment across the organization and build faith and credibility with altr. They have since picked up additional projects across Becton Dickinson. The meeting helped empower them and set them up for success.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior manager at a healthcare organization with several doctor’s offices around the country. We focus on Medicare patients, providing a better, team-based approach to primary care.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with altr?

Our previous website was antiquated and not user-friendly. It didn't serve even it’s basic purpose of providing information about who we are, what we do, and how we help patients. As a result, we needed resources to help us redesign the website to better serve our goals.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, altr executed a discovery phase, interviewing our team along with current and potential patients. After those interviews, we worked together to solidify requirements that would enable us to meet our goals. altr built wireframes and provided us with creative concepts to review such as color scheme, page design, and copywriting. From there, they created templates and developed a multi-location WordPress website.

What is the team composition?

We worked primarily with altr’s two founders, and they had a team of two developers supporting them.

How did you come to work with altr?

We vetted a few web design firms, but altr stood out because of their portfolio and work culture. The examples they provided of their previous work reflected what we were looking for. Additionally, their values aligned with our passion for helping people, and they understood how to implement that in a website.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from May–September 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Not only do we have a multi-location website, but we will also be opening ten new locations this year. We’re able to do this in-house because altr provided us with a flexible website that we could easily manage and quickly update. Using the templates and framework altr built, our digital team seamlessly creates new websites and landing pages. Because we use these landing pages for marketing and advertising, they have helped us drive growth.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

They were communicative about timelines; we had a progress update on a weekly basis at a minimum. They stayed on top of the project and made sure that we met all of our business, budgetary, and scheduling goals.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were a small team when we worked together, and I was impressed with the amount of work they took on, especially with our short timeline. They remained flexible and efficient throughout the entire project, even when the workload increased.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

With any web development project, it’s important to establish all of your requirements prior to the engagement. That will prevent any surprises later in the project, and help it continue seamlessly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Jitterbit is an enterprise Integration Platform as a Service (eIPaaS). We have a cloud platform that allows businesses to connect and to integrate all of their data and systems such as business applications, data repositories, cloud/SaaS apps, IoT, mobile, and more. I am the SVP of Products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with altr?

We had a complicated, desktop-based studio that was over 10 years old. It was very sophisticated, but couldn’t run in the cloud. The cosmetics and user experience were dated and it was beginning to create problems for us in the market. We wanted to completely refactor both the user experience and the look/feel of the studio so that it reflected the modern and intuitive experience that our customers expect.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Integration can be very technical and complex, with a steep learning curve. This is not a consumer or business-end user application. Altr needed to get up to speed very quickly - within 60 days - and learn not only the industry, use cases, and personas but also have hands-on training with the product itself. Altr took it upon themselves to read all of the technical documentation, take our online courses, attend multiple demos with our Professional Services and Sales Engineering teams, and talk to customers. They had full access to all of our development documentation as well.

The project was comprehensive. We didn't want to do an exact copy of the existing studio. We literally started from scratch and re-designed the entire studio as if we were a brand new startup. Altr was intimately involved in the entire process from design through development and QA.

What is the team composition? 

We worked directly with Geordie (Founder, Chief of Strategy, altr) and Christine (Founder, Chief of Design, altr) along with various members of their team as needed for design, comps, etc.

How did you come to work with altr?

We were referred to Altr by the founder of another design firm I had worked with in the past on a similar project as the one we were going to do at Jitterbit. That firm wasn't available and he strongly recommended Altr. We included them in the selection process along with 3 other firms who came to us by board referral, previous contract with Jitterbit, and an outside firm via google search respectively. Experience with deeply technical, enterprise applications and a strong design aesthetic were the primary criteria. UI development expertise and/or a relationship with a good UI firm was also a requirement.

Of all the contenders, altr was the only firm that thoroughly read through our website, downloaded the trial, watched all the demo videos, and educated themselves on the space during the selection process. They had a very tight and well-delivered proposal that reflected their work ethic and dedication to the customer. They were the only firm that had a proven relationship with a strong UI development firm with a deep technical bench that we needed. They were the only firm that "got it" on the scope of what we were trying to do and answered with a sound plan. Christine and Geordie were very personable, easy to talk to, inquisitive, and genuinely seemed to care about our business. They were honest with us on the time frame and cost where other firms were overly optimistic and/or simplistic about the actual effort it would take to accomplish this. We knew speaking to them that we'd be a priority and we wouldn't be flipped to entry-level staff.

How much have you invested with them?

To date, we’ve spent around $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in January 2017. We will launch version 1 of the project in the first week of April 2018 and have signed a retainer with them for the rest of the year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Hiring an internal team would have cost us two to three times more than we spent on this project. Altr provided a level of speed and expertise that we could not get in-house in the time frame we needed. Christine and Geordie worked alongside the team as if they were full-time employees and showed the same level of dedication and care to building a world-class offering.

We got tremendous value from their quality, modernity, and depth of expertise. There was no way we could have hired a team of similar experience and talent. It would have been impossible to meet the aggressive time frame we gave for building a brand new studio. We didn't go down the rat hole with missed or muddy designs that required multiple cycles to get right. We didn't have the infighting and friction that you can sometimes experience between development and UX/UI. Altr were honest with us and respectfully challenged us on potentially poor decisions - they weren't afraid to speak up and show alternate ways to achieve the same thing.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent. I didn’t even have to think about project management. They’re very organized; everything was easy to digest. All of our discussions were forthright and they delivered what they said they would on time. If an item was delayed, they communicated right away. The whole process was very smooth.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The caliber and depth of the entire team was impressive. Everyone we worked with was professional and the work was very high quality. They’re very hands-on and really want to understand our business, our product, and our customers. They made themselves experts on our space and our offering in a very short time. It really felt we were working together as colleagues versus a vendor-customer type relationship.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I really can't think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would treat altr as any other member of your team - let them embed and work directly with your customers, developers, and product/project managers. Spend the time upfront to educate them as much as you can from all angles - market, product, customers, competition. Don't be afraid to give them the tough material and trust them to understand.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief marketing officer at Bentley University. We are a business university outside of Boston, Massachusetts, with both graduate and undergraduate programs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with altr?

We needed a new graduate admission website. Our existing site was over 4 years old and really suffered from significant content sprawl and no longer adequately served key audience needs. The original site was built be someone else.

A couple things were driving the redesign of the current website. Our audiences are increasingly web centric. So over 50% of business school applicants are seeking information and making decisions without ever contacting admissions. They’re using and relying heavily on a university’s website. Websites have to work harder than ever before. We believed our website could be optimized to improve performance for users, better showcase each program’s unique value proposition, support specific persona motivations, and ultimately drive more leads.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted to create a program driven storefront approach. We wanted a site that was organized around our programs rather than our internal departments. We felt that’d improve the user experience and ultimately help visitors find the information they need.

Our site is built in the Drupal CMS. Altr chose to partner with a 3rd party web development shop to build the site in Drupal so that they could hand code over to us. Altr focused more on design and outsourced the development work.

What is the team dynamic? 

We interacted with three people. One of the principals was predominantly focused on user experience and design. The other principal was focused on overall strategy. The third was a designer.

How did you come to work with altr?

It was an internal referral. One of the people on the team knew of their agency. We looked at 8-9 different agencies. We did a very thorough vetting. We sent out an RSP. We accepted proposals. From the proposals we received, we brought in about 3 agencies and we chose altr from the 3. The principals of altr are still very heavily involved in the decisions and would be serving as our primary point of contacts. They really had an approach that made us confident that they could deliver given the timeline and budget in a very agile, rapid prototyping kind of approach.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May until August of this last year

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

One of the things that I’m happiest about is that we really contained the sprawl. We went from 450 pages on the site to about 75 pages. Even though we went down in pages, we saw a 10% increase in pages per session. We saw session duration almost double. We saw bounce rate go down by 15%. For our kind of “add to cart” analog is clicking on “apply online” and we saw 2X growth in the amount of people going to apply online.

We were highlighted by our peers. There was a higher ed marketing conference and we were commended by some peers who understand how valuable a streamlined, user centric site experience is. I haven't not noticed any bugs.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

I would give them high marks for the work they did on the frontend design. They really project managed and hit all the dates and milestones we had set out. When the work was scoped with their own team, we faced some challenges when they brought in the 3rd party development shop and they were less involved in the project management. We definitely hit a lot more speed bumps. I had to run interference a few times to get the project back on track.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with how quickly they were able to get their head around our audience and our business objective. They were able to simplify a fairly complex site and do a really effective assessment and content map and site audit in a very short period of time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be more transparent when we started hitting speed bumps on the development side. They could have had more regular check-ins at that point rather than assuming their 3rd party partner was effectively project managing that. They could have owned more of that and that would have resolved some of the issues. There were miscommunications on the prioritization of some of the development effort. Having altr more involved and advocated for some things over others and steered the ship more, it would have resolved a lot.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend that they consider altr for frontend design, strategy. I they want to have complete turnkey backend work too, they should either provide their own development partner or use whoever altr brings to the table very carefully. I would recommend them without any reservation for frontend design.